“Built, Not Bought”: New York Jets’ Robert Saleh and Joe Douglas Ready to Mount a Championship Challenge After 11-Year Playoff Drought

After a great offseason, the New York Jets are entering the 2022 season with high expectations for both the short- and long-term. The roster is established. Only two of the 80 players on the Jets’ roster played in the NFL after the 2010 season, the last time they reached the playoffs.

Linebacker C.J. Mosley declared the 2022 season to be “playoffs or bust” despite the past. They have missed the playoffs for 11 straight seasons, which is both the longest ongoing skid in the NFL and the longest streak in team history.

New York Jets
Credits: Elite Sports NY

When the Jets competed in their lone Super Bowl in January 1969, Saleh, now 43, had not yet been born. He and general manager Joe Douglas have given the organization a sense of hope and confidence.

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New York Jets with big optimism ahead of 2022 season

“I still believe we’re going to win championships here,” said Saleh. He likes to say that their roster was “built, not bought.”

“I feel like we’re certainly a more talented team than we’ve ever been,” said Douglas.

The New York Jets haven’t recently participated in a significant late-season contest. You have to go back to 2015 when the Bills ended their season on a penultimate day and dashed their postseason dreams. Since then, September and October tend to seem like the end of the seasons.

Saleh played a key role in San Francisco’s successful reconstruction, but it wasn’t until Year 3, and a trip to the Super Bowl, that things really started to take off. Saleh anticipates that the New York Jets’ top players will develop in the same period as they did for the Patriots. Saleh stated during the last campaign that the AFC East deficit needed to be closed.

The New York Jets have lost their last 12 divisional games, having last won one in 2019. According to Douglas, they must defeat the Dolphins, Bills, and Patriots if they plan to play any important games in the near future. Douglas is aware that for the public to support what the Jets are doing, this squad must succeed.

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